Art Brut sings of 'Moving to LA', Tears Down the House at Spaceland - Good Start!
June Caldwell
November 25, 2005
‘Art Brut’, one of London’s biggest new music underground’s live draws these days, had been waiting a whole year to sing their crowd pleaser, ‘Moving to LA’ to an actual LA audience! “When I get off the plane/The first thing I'm gonna do is/Strip naked to the waist/And ride my Harley Davidson/Up and down Sunset street/I may even get a tattoo…” their riveting frontman Eddie Argos had been singing to pubs and ever-growing audiences in the UK nonstop. Tonight they are finally here at Spaceland in LA, performing to a packed house, all of us wondering if their life performances are as wild a party as rumor has it they are. To add to the buzz of Argos' bad-boy image, he was known to have gotten in a fist-fight with the lead singer of Bloc Party, who are unspeakably popular in the UK. Along with Argos, Art Brut consists of Ian Catskilkin and Jasper Future both on guitar, and a rhythm section from Germany that consists of Freddy Feedback on bass and Mikey B on drums. They are fresh and new sounding, yet reminicient of New York Dolls/Sex Pistols thrown in with punk pounding brash barroom brawl excitement.
Everything was lined up to ensure Art Brut actually does move to LA. It was easy to predict the summer weather in the middle of November, all the right people lined up at the oh-so-trendy Spaceland, the general consensus that it’s cool to be up on the latest British import. The one thing that can’t be predicted is how the self-congratulatory, self-proclaimed jaded LA audience will react to a new band. We in LA have heard it all, we know what Brit-pop is… what a hideous ridiculous term especially since one out of every three bands in LA now seems to define themselves as one!
He’s considering a move to LA! He’s considering a move to LA!’ It’s true, it’s right there in the lyrics. For the first time in months everyone in a trendy LA nightclub is laughing, pogoing (that’s right, pogoing…you know hopping up and down like an idiot on a pogo stick), sweating, yelling out along to the music pretending we know the lyrics when actually we have no idea what the intense, crazed – and now our new hero - Argos is saying. Did I mention I kinda like their song ‘Moving to LA’?
Always a good sign when in line for the loo I hear comments like, ‘oh yeah, I knew about Art Brut a few months ago, one of my favorites!’ Or the girl next to me shouting out ‘Emily Kane! Emily Kane!’ through the whole set. Yes we get it, you know of one of their songs, you’re brilliant! No worries, we’re dancing! A band with a sense of humor….finally at last it is safe to listen to live music again! We don’t know whether to laugh or sing or both and what does it matter anyway?
Emily Kane’, an ironically upbeat lament about frontman Eddie Argos’ ex-girlfriend is by far their most known song, and got the whole place singing along. In ‘Formed a Band’, Eddie demands that we all do so immediately, and at the time it seemed to make sense.
Freddy’s clear power baselines and the unexpectedly playful guitar textures resonated with more of a 70s LA punk sound than 80s rehash, even had some riffs coincidentally reminicient of LA’s favorite local icons ‘X’ so connected especially well with this crowd. ‘Bang, Bang, Rock & Roll’ seemed to be the all out riotous favorite. So much has been said about the riveting Argos, but what actually pulled it all together was how the ensemble played such sharp full riffs (such a relief from the jagged sparse pseudo Futureheads wave), so effortlessly as a whole…and there’s that ‘f’ word again…were obviously having so much fun!
Everything was lined up to ensure Art Brut actually does move to LA. It was easy to predict the summer weather in the middle of November, all the right people lined up at the oh-so-trendy Spaceland, the general consensus that it’s cool to be up on the latest British import. The one thing that can’t be predicted is how the self-congratulatory, self-proclaimed jaded LA audience will react to a new band. We in LA have heard it all, we know what Brit-pop is… what a hideous ridiculous term especially since one out of every three bands in LA now seems to define themselves as one!
He’s considering a move to LA! He’s considering a move to LA!’ It’s true, it’s right there in the lyrics. For the first time in months everyone in a trendy LA nightclub is laughing, pogoing (that’s right, pogoing…you know hopping up and down like an idiot on a pogo stick), sweating, yelling out along to the music pretending we know the lyrics when actually we have no idea what the intense, crazed – and now our new hero - Argos is saying. Did I mention I kinda like their song ‘Moving to LA’?
Always a good sign when in line for the loo I hear comments like, ‘oh yeah, I knew about Art Brut a few months ago, one of my favorites!’ Or the girl next to me shouting out ‘Emily Kane! Emily Kane!’ through the whole set. Yes we get it, you know of one of their songs, you’re brilliant! No worries, we’re dancing! A band with a sense of humor….finally at last it is safe to listen to live music again! We don’t know whether to laugh or sing or both and what does it matter anyway?
Emily Kane’, an ironically upbeat lament about frontman Eddie Argos’ ex-girlfriend is by far their most known song, and got the whole place singing along. In ‘Formed a Band’, Eddie demands that we all do so immediately, and at the time it seemed to make sense.
Freddy’s clear power baselines and the unexpectedly playful guitar textures resonated with more of a 70s LA punk sound than 80s rehash, even had some riffs coincidentally reminicient of LA’s favorite local icons ‘X’ so connected especially well with this crowd. ‘Bang, Bang, Rock & Roll’ seemed to be the all out riotous favorite. So much has been said about the riveting Argos, but what actually pulled it all together was how the ensemble played such sharp full riffs (such a relief from the jagged sparse pseudo Futureheads wave), so effortlessly as a whole…and there’s that ‘f’ word again…were obviously having so much fun!
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